Game 34: San Diego Padres at San Francisco Giants
Padres face Giants on May 4, 2026, at Oracle Park.
Philadelphia 76ers coach Nick Nurse emphasizes the need to make Knicks star Jalen Brunson work hard for his points in their upcoming playoff matchup. Brunson's scoring ability and physicality present a significant challenge for the Sixers.
NEW YORK -- The Philadelphia 76ers ousted the Boston Celtics with a historic Game 7 win as they rallied from a 3-1 deficit. They had some serious challenges in that series in terms of defending two legitimate scorers in Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown.
The Sixers will now have to find a way to slow down New York Knicks star Jalen Brunson in Round 2.
Brunson, standing at just 6-foot-1, is one of the elite scorers in the game as he comes up with so many impressive finishes around the basket. He uses his physicality and is able to get players into foul trouble while making life easier for the Knicks every time he gets into the paint off the dribble, so that is on the mind of the Sixers and coach Nick Nurse.
"He’s a great player," said Nurse. "He’s a great scorer. A great clutch player, all that stuff. The biggest thing is you wanna make him work for his buckets, right? So that’s always where we start with all of these guys. Those guys last series, it’s where we start, and then we start thinking about throwing different matchups at him so he just doesn’t get the same look. Each guy is gonna guard him and give him a different look."
The Sixers will throw a number of great defenders at him as they can lean on Paul George and Kelly Oubre Jr. in the starting lineup as well as guys like Quentin Grimes off the bench. Either way, the Sixers will look to make life tough on Brunson as well as in the pick-and-roll.
The Sixers plan to make Brunson work for his points by employing different matchups and defensive looks to disrupt his scoring rhythm.
The Sixers achieved a historic Game 7 victory over the Celtics, coming back from a 3-1 series deficit.
Brunson is known for his elite scoring ability, physicality, and knack for drawing fouls, making him a tough matchup for defenders.
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"Then the last thing is you start coming to schemes," Nurse finished. "What are you doing? Like, how much help are you providing? Where’s it coming from? Is there any double teams? What are the schemes? How are we playing pick-and-roll? So, it’s kind of a long process to get back to the first part. We gotta make him work. He’s gonna make buckets and you just gotta contest it. If he makes it? God bless him."
This is going to be a chess match. As the Sixers move ahead in this series, it will be a lot of back-and-forth between themselves and the Knicks as both teams look to get to the Eastern Conference finals and make things happen on a championship push.
This article originally appeared on Sixers Wire: Sixers' Nick Nurse discusses keys to slowing Knicks star Jalen Brunson